Pillsbury Reduced Sugar Frosting

If you're making a healthy cake, it's important to top it with a healthy frosting! Why go with a high sugar frosting, when this Pillsbury icing has only half the sugar - and is just as delicious and creamy.

To start with, just why do we add frosting or icing to a cake? Yes, it makes it pretty, and hides up any little flaws the cake might have. But also, cakes are by their nature a "dry" baked good - so the icing adds moistness and a slippery texture to the dish. This means that not only is the flavor of an icing important, but the texture is equally important as well.

We've tried many different types of less-sugar icings, and often they have an odd type of texture to them. The flavor is sometimes a little too sweet or chalky.

Pillsbury really deserves kudos for getting it right in this case. We've tried both the vanilla and chocolate varieties a number of times.

First, the flavor. It is rich and full, with the right amount of sweetness. It's not cloying - it is very pleasing. The vanilla has a gentle hint of the vanilla flavor. The chocolate is nicely, authentically chocolate flavored.

On the texture side, it is wonderfully smooth to spread, and it looks quite pretty. It is smooth on the tongue and helps the cake to mix well in your mouth.

Remember, this isn't a zero carb item. A serving of icing - 2 tablespoons - has 15g. That's a fair amount of sugar to be taking in right on the top of another sugary substance! Remember, you're not just eating icing off a spoon (usually). It's just one component of a dessert.

Still, what is really scary is that this is HALF the sugar of a regular frosting. Imagine just how much incredible amount of sugar is in a normal combination of high-sugar cake with high-sugar frosting! No wonder people who eat sugary desserts as a normal daily habit end up gaining weight. It's not something that people could maintain, unless I suppose they were out doing hard farm labour all day long :)

So most definitely, if you're going to have a cake, get a low sugar frosting! These are really delicious and just as great as a high sugar frosting - but without the teeth rotting, stomach bulging sugars.